The West Fork softball team closed out their second ever state tournament appearance with a fourth place finish after falling 5-3 to Louisa-Muscatine in Class 2A third place game on Friday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
After a scoreless first inning, Louisa-Muscatine sparked a two out rally to score five runs in the second. West Fork bounced back to cut their deficit to 5-3 by loading the bases in the third. The Warhawks scored three runs on a two RBI single by JoAnna Wallace and a Falcons wild pitch. Over the final four innings the Warhawks held their ground defensively and allowed only two Falcon baserunners to reach. The Falcons answered by halting the Warhawks rally and allowed only one baserunner to reach to hold on for the win. Head Coach Sadie Winfrey on the Warhawks standing following their second state run.
“I’m super proud of them. Not the outcome that they wanted, but nothing to hang their heads about. They played hard, they competed with all of these very good teams here at the state tournament, all three games. Obviously just some little things that we weren’t able to clean up that kind of cost us some of those runs,” says Winfrey. “It’s huge, being the first time last year that we had made it here and doing it two years in a row. I hope that it really has started something for this program. I know that there’s a lot of little girls that look up to them and are gonna put in the work to make sure that this continues to happen.”
Senior JoAnna Wallace on how the team’s rallies and concluding Warhawk career at state.
“I think that we’re able to bounce back because of our energy, our effort and our attitudes. We try to keep our attitudes up and that really helps. Being able to show up for each other is what helps us pick each other up. We really get after everything that way and it feels really good,” says Wallace. “Being able to come to big things like this and show what we actually are, feels really good. We showed up and especially this year we really showed up and it felt amazing.”
Libby Trewin had one strikeout and allowed five runs. Trewin, Wallace and Preslee Dickman each recorded a hit. Wallace drove in two runs.
Trewin and Dickman were recognized as members of the Class 2A all-tournament team.
West Fork concluded their season at 23-8.
